


Whumptober 2020 08 Isolation

by frankie_mcstein



Series: Whumptober 2020 [8]
Category: Magnum P.I. (TV 2018)
Genre: Dehydration, Eggs, Fluffy Ending, Gen, Higgins Whump, Higgy taking care of Magnum, Isolation, Kidnapping, Malnutrition, Whumptober 2020, Worried boys, all the eggs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:33:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26894515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frankie_mcstein/pseuds/frankie_mcstein
Summary: Whumptober 2020 prompt 08- IsolationShe had been there for a few weeks now, trapped and scared and so very hungry. Maybe her captors were right. Maybe her boys weren't going to find her.
Relationships: Juliet Higgins & Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV
Series: Whumptober 2020 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947172
Comments: 26
Kudos: 52





	Whumptober 2020 08 Isolation

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so mean to my darling! But, as usual, fluffy ending ahoy!

Everything was dark. And her head hurt. Higgins groaned a little at the pain. She felt like she had fallen, but she couldn't seem to figure out how to stand back up. Her arms and legs refused to move the way she was sure she was telling them to move. And the pain in her head was spreading along to her neck.

She tried to focus on that pain, to figure out how a headache was becoming a neckache. Maybe she'd given herself a concussion when she fell? Maybe she hadn't fallen but been thrown? Had she been fighting someone? She tried to listen for the sounds of a fight. She couldn't hear anything, and it left her unsure if she was doing it right, if maybe she'd forgotten how to use her ears along with her limbs. 

Surely, if she'd been in a fight of some sort, Magnum would have been there too? The thought made her strain her ears again, trying to hear anything that wasn't her own breathing. And she tried again to see through the darkness, opening her eyes as wide as she could to assure herself they really were open. 

Her whole body seemed to be broken, nothing seemed to be working the way it was meant to. Her arms and legs were staying stubbornly still no matter how hard she tried to move them. Her eyes and ears refused to see or hear regardless of how she strained them against the silent darkness that was surrounding her. She couldn't even lift her head.

Lift her head? Oh now, hold on just a moment. This was new information. She struggled to figure out what it meant, long seconds ticking by as she tried to work out why she would need to lift her head. Hanging down, she decided. Her head was hanging down, neck stretching at the weight as her chin rested on her chest. Right, this was progress. This was something she had figured out, and she knew what to do about it. 

She lifted her head.

Pain surged forward, exploding in bright bursts of colour that spun across her vision. It was a welcome change from the darkness, and she tipped her head to the left, then the right, stretching out the complaining muscles. The exertion left her panting and shaking a little, but it was worth it. She knew she was sitting down. She knew her hands were tied tightly. She knew she was pinned to the wall behind her somehow. And she knew that, no matter where she was or who had taken her, her boys wouldn't stop looking for her until they had her safely back with them.

…

Light exploded through the small room and the sound of footsteps echoed off the walls. Higgins forced herself to stare at the tiny strip of light spilling in from beneath the door. Her eyes ached and throbbed, but she refused to look away. She needed to take in as much of the light as she could, else the flash of pain when the door was opened would be unbearable. She had no intention of letting her captors see her wince again. 

She wondered which of them it would be today. They didn't seem to be following any sort of schedule she could work out. She thought she had been stuck in this room, tied against the wall by the same ropes that were holding her hands, for a week now. She had seen the blond-haired one three days in a row, then the dark-haired one twice, then the blond-haired one the last two days. The blond-haired one had made a point of taking a mouthful from the bottle of water he'd brought for her and laughing before putting a straw in the bottle and putting it on the floor in front of her. He'd laughed at her awkward attempts to bend far enough to reach the straw too. He'd eaten all the food he'd brought for her while he was watching her struggle to drink. The dark-haired one had avoided all eye contact but had given her the full bottle of water, tipping it to her lips instead of making her call on her years of yoga practice to get a single mouthful, and helped her eat the sandwiches he had brought.

She much preferred the dark-haired one.

Voices were rumbling over the sound of their footsteps; they were both here. She resisted the urge to let her eyes close; they'd never come together before, and she couldn't help but worry about what it meant. If they were there to ask questions, after a week of being hungry and thirsty, she wasn't sure how long she would be able to hold out.

'Food isn't a problem for weeks, especially when you're staying still,' she snapped at herself, trying to stiffen her own resolve to resist giving these men any answers. 'You've done this before. Just keep your mouth shut.' Even her inner voice refused to address the terrible thirst that was burning in her throat.

And then the door swung open and the light was blocked by two figures filling the doorway. She squinted a little, trying to make out facial features. The dark-haired one stepped in first and walked to her side, twisting the lid off a bottle of water. He put it on the floor and dropped a straw into it, then stepped back. Higgins cursed to herself but tipped herself forward and closed her lips around the straw.

Draining the bottle wasn't easy; the ropes were tight around her wrists and looped around her waist. If she let her weight rest against them, she couldn't suck the water up. So she had to bend and fold her body over her legs, ignoring the protests of her head, stomach, and spine. She heard one of the men snickering, but she ignored it; one bottle a day was nowhere near enough, and she wasn't about to let the humiliation burning deep in her stomach stop her from getting every drop she could.

The dark-haired one moved forward again when she'd finished the water, and she couldn't help but look hopefully for food. Even if he just put the plate on the floor and didn't feed her like he had before, she'd figure something out.

"You're lucky."

It was the blond one, and Higgins blinked at him. Neither of them had said a single word to her before. She'd tried to get some sort of response from them both for the first few days, but the dryness in her mouth and throat had made it increasingly hard to talk. After a few days, when she'd realised she was just making her mouth drier, she'd stopped trying.

"The boss was killed by one of his lieutenants yesterday."

Higgins blinked again, hopelessly confused. Surely, if the man who had ordered her kidnapping was dead, it was a bad thing? If this boss had been doing such a crappy job that he'd been taken out, how likely was his successor to care about some penny-ante kidnapping?

The dark-haired one knelt down next to her. "We don't know what's going to happen yet."

That wasn't exactly helpful when she didn't even know what had been happening before. She had no idea who these guys were, who they worked for, or why they'd been told to grab her. She stared at him, hoping he was going to explain at least part of what was going on. But he just looked away from her and sighed, tipping his head to look at his blond-haired friend.

"We need to give her more food, more water. She won't last much longer like this."

"Nonsense."

The sound of a bottle opening made Higgins look away from the dark-haired one, eyes searching for the water without her even meaning to. The bottle was in the blond-haired man's hand, and she couldn't help the way her tongue ran haltingly over her lips as he walked towards her.

He bent down, tilting the bottle, and she didn't even think, just opened her mouth, her throat begging for just one more mouthful of water. The first drop hit her lip, then, with an abruptness that made her head spin a little, the blond-haired man straightened up. He kept the bottle over her face, letting the water fall over her nose and mouth. 

The coughing as she choked was painful, wringing tears from her eyes. She could hardly hear his laughter over her own desperate gasps.

"See?" He was striding towards the door, crossing the small room in just four or five easy steps. "Plenty of fight left in her." And he walked out, not caring that his prisoner was still coughing even as she tried desperately to lick at the drops of water that were running over her face.

When she finally managed to take a breath, when she finally had to admit to herself that she wasn't getting any more water from her own skin, Higgins let her head drop back against the wall. Her eyes moved lazily around the room, wondering with a strange sort of slowness why it was all so bright. The dark-haired man was still standing in the doorway.

He opened his mouth when he noticed her looking at him, then closed it again. His eyes dropped, fixing themselves to the floor.

"I really am sorry," he said finally, still not meeting her eyes. "If it comes to it, I promise I'll try and kill you myself. I won't let him do it." Now his eyes came up and fixed on hers with an intensity that had a sick fear rolling through her gut. "I don't wanna see another woman go through that."

He turned, stepped out, and slammed the door on the scared, pleading look that Higgins couldn't keep off her face.

... 

Higgins couldn't help but smile softly at the mental grocery list she had built over the last two days or so (after the confusion and mild terror of the dark-haired man's promise, she'd redoubled her efforts to keep track of time, but it had grown increasingly difficult with the blond-haired one being her only visitor and only feeding her once every few days). Everything she could possibly think of to eat, ingredients for every meal she could remember ever enjoying. And, of course, a little extra at the end. She'd kept a close eye on how much she would be spending, the mental arithmetic a welcome distraction from the hunger cramps that had her doubling over against her restraints. Her smile grew a little bigger at the slightly increased total amount.

She'd been adding extra groceries to the usual weekly order and sneaking them into Magnum's kitchen for so long, they didn't even register as an extra expense any more. Even as a mental exercise to keep her from crying at the sense of hopelessness that was gnawing away at her, she couldn't pass up the carrier bag worth of extra items. It had started as a way of assuring herself Magnum wasn't going to be too weak from hunger to react to the immediate danger he, and, by extension, she, always seemed to find even in the simplest of cases. She knew of two occasions when he had carefully arranged to show up while she was eating to scrounge for leftovers, and, really, that was two times too many.

But that had been a long time ago. Really, given the progress they had made with their relationship, it was a lifetime ago. She knew she didn't need to buy food for him anymore; not having money to fill up a gas-guzzler like the Ferrari wasn't quite the same as not having the money to feed himself. And the business was getting better and better; even with her taking a cut of the profits now that they were partners, Magnum wasn't short on money for essentials. Even so, for whatever reason, she couldn't bring herself to stop buying a small handful of kitchen staples each week that were earmarked for the guesthouse. 

(Even when she wasn't actually placing an order but was actually tied to a rusty metal ring sunk deep into the wall of her little basement prison.)

She thought Magnum would be mortified if he knew what she had been doing. Probably assume it was some bizarre way of putting him down, insulting his financial capabilities. And Rick and T.C. would doubtless be annoyed with her for what she was sure they would see as her being two-faced, agreeing to work with Magnum and then implying he wasn't capable of even earning enough to keep himself from starving. It wasn't what she had thought. Even all those months ago when she had first 'accidentally' ordered an extra carton of eggs and too much bread, she'd only been thinking he needed a helping hand to get through a rough patch. The same help that he gave freely to anyone who asked. And even sometimes to people who didn't ask but just looked like they needed a hand up in life. But she hadn't been able to bring herself to tell him what she was doing, that she was offering food as a way of showing she cared for him. And now, after such a long time, she didn't dare tell anyone what she was doing, afraid her very British emotional reticence would prevent her from being able to explain properly.

(Now she was starting to wonder if she would ever get the chance to explain to any of them, but she was trying desperately not to let her head fill with thoughts like that.)

So, every Saturday, she sent off the order with more food than she and Kumu could eat. Every Monday morning when the delivery arrived, always at the earliest time slot so as to avoid Magnum ever being up to offer to help, she packed the extra bits and pieces into a separate bag. And every Monday afternoon, or, hopefully, Tuesday morning at the latest, she would use the spare key (always assuming she even needed it, given Magnum's shocking lack of ability to lock a door behind him) and carefully mix the new food in with whatever was already in the cupboards and fridge in the guesthouse. She'd even gone so far as to open new boxes and leave with half the contents after using the other half to refill boxes that Magnum had open. Anything to make sure no one cottoned on to what she was doing. 

(Anything to make sure she was doing everything she could to keep him safe, but that was something she didn't care to look at too closely.)

Had she added eggs to her mental list? So versatile, the common egg. Full of nutrients, easy to cook; add a handful of herbs or spices and you had a meal with nothing more than some whisking and a hot pan. Magnum was good with eggs, she remembered. He'd made her an omelette once, when her recently dislocated shoulder had left her less than happy at the idea of cooking and the muscle relaxants had made her stomach rebel at the thought of ordering a greasy takeout. It had been thick and fluffy. Full of flavour that had burst on her tongue without being too heavy for her stomach to handle. 

She wondered vaguely if he would agree to cook for her again. Maybe, if she bought the ingredients and asked very nicely? Offered to let him use the big kitchen in the main house and the fancy frying pans that were hung over the island? He always seems to like those pans for some reason.

Her lips moved as she focused every bit of attention on the memory of that omelette. The orange tint to the yolk as Magnum had whisked, quickly and easily, unconsciously showing years of practice. The tiny sizzle as the cold egg had met the warm oil. (Always use a little oil, Magnum had said, casually, like he was talking to himself, even in the most expensive non-stick pan.) The smell as the herbs had started to cook. If she hadn't been so thirsty, so terribly thirsty, her mouth would have been watering. She'd even be willing to dislocate her shoulder again. Heck, she'd break her own arm if it would get her that one moment back where she could smell every flavour she was about to eat, feel her stomach growl in anticipation.

She let her eyes close, dizziness crashing down over her along with the half-remembered taste of that first bite. A tiny smile tugged at the corners of her cracked lips as her mind's eye showed her Magnum heading her way with a plate in one hand and cutlery in the other. 

He'd made coffee too, she remembered suddenly. He'd put the plate down in front of her, knife and fork to the side of it, then turned away. She'd expected him to return with his own plate. Instead, he'd carried over a mug of coffee, as if he'd known how the headache was starting to drag behind her eyes in spite of the tablets the doctor had given her before he'd yanked her arm up and to the side, making her sob for just a second before the relief kicked in and her entire body relaxed.

She felt like sobbing now. She felt like curling into a ball and hiding her face in her hands and crying. Thirst had her throat feeling swollen. Hunger had her stomach burning and rolling. The really scary thing was the way she was getting able to ignore her body's need for food and water. She thought, if Magnum were to show up with one of his bloody omelettes, she'd be perfectly capable of shrugging and saying, "No thank you." Her body was feeling slow and heavy, and the fact that she wasn't scared was genuinely terrifying.

And, despite her saying over and over that he was lying, she had been so hungry and so thirsty and so tired and so scared for so long, she couldn't help but think her blond-haired captor was right; her boys were never going to find her.

…

She wasn't sure how long it had been. The blond-haired man hadn't been in the room for a while. It was always the dark-haired one now. He would hold the bottle of water for her, tip it slowly, wait patiently when she coughed and choked. Well, he always cursed when the water rolled over her chin. But he always kept trying to get her to drink just a little more. He even kept trying to coax her into eating more. But anything over a couple of bites just felt like too much, like she was going to be sick. 

Besides, she wasn't the one who needed food; it was Magnum who was hungry. She couldn't remember why, but she knew she hadn't bought him any eggs for a while now. Without her sneaking eggs into his fridge, he would be reduced to scrounging for leftovers and that just wasn't right. A man like Magnum shouldn't be starving, going around with an empty stomach and dizzy from low blood sugar. Maybe, if she didn't finish her food, the dark-haired man would take it to Magnum? Especially as she was leaving so much of it. 

Some part of her was worried; she could feel the anxiety prickling in the back of her mind. But she couldn't work out what she was worried about. Unless… maybe the reason the dark-haired man kept bringing her the food was because he didn't know where Thomas was? Maybe that was why she could feel panic scratching at the back of her mind; Thomas wasn't eating. 

She thought he was standing in front of her, smiling down at her even as he rubbed absently at his empty stomach. She tried to reach for him, to offer him the sandwich she hadn't been able to eat even a single mouthful of. But her hands wouldn't move. She wasn't too sure why. Maybe it had something to do with the way she was shaking? It didn't matter. Now Magnum was here, surely the dark-haired man would feed him instead of wasting food on her.

The door opened, but Higgins didn't look away from Magnum. He had the strangest look on his face, one she had never seen before, and she was trying to figure out what it meant. The warmth on her face was a surprise- she hadn't realised how cold she was- but she reacted slowly. Her eyes blinked without her meaning to, and Magnum vanished. Maybe he had smelled food and gone to find it? She turned her head, wondering if it was Magnum who was crouched next to her, and a bottle of water was pressed to her lips.

She did her best to swallow, she really did, but she could feel water trickling down her chin. The bottle moved, and she felt like crying; she really had tried as hard as she could to avoid spilling the water. But she just let her head fall forward, not even trying to lick at the water beneath her mouth. She didn't feel like she needed food anymore and was just waiting for her body to decide it didn't really need water anymore too.

"Jules?"

The voice had been calling her name for a while. She realised, as soon as she realised she was hearing her name, that she had heard it quite a few times over the last little while. She tried to lift her head again, to force her eyes to focus. 

"Ri…" She couldn't even get his full name out, but Rick seemed to know she was trying to talk to him. He moved a little closer, so he was pressed against her. His hand was still on her face, but his other was… something. It was doing something. She couldn't work out what. It wasn't important anyway. It was Magnum she needed to worry about. 

"Thom…" Her voice failed her again, but Rick moved his head.

"It's okay Jules. Tommy's upstairs with Katsumoto."

"Hung...ry…" She gasped at the strain on her throat, feeling her eyes itch like they were trying to tear up.

"You're hungry?" Rick whispered, somehow seeming to know she couldn't handle loud noises.

She gave her head a little shake, feeling dizzy and lightheaded and sick, but needing Rick to understand. Desperation was clawing at her. "Thom… Thom...s…" 

"Hey, hey, shhh." Rick sounded so soothing. "You think Tommy is hungry?" 

She tried to say yes. She tried to ask him to make sure Magnum had eggs. She tried to say please. Her lips were moving, she could feel it. But she wasn't making any noise. She knew her boys could have full-blown conversations without any of them saying a single word and wondered if she would be able to copy them. She let her head fall to the side to try to catch Rick's eye, hoping with every tiny ounce of energy she had left that he would understand what she was desperately trying to say to him. 

But everything was swimming and grey and shaking and dark and heavy. Some invisible thing was pressing down on her, stealing her breath a little. As Rick finally managed to cut through the rope pinning her hands to her sides, Higgins finally hit the limit she had been approaching for days. Her body sagged, dropping abruptly, tipping to one side. Rick had to drop his knife to catch her.

When he had called out, "She's here!" after breaking the padlock and shoving the door open, he'd sounded jubilant. Then, when he had shouted up that she needed an ambulance, he had sounded worried. As Magnum and T.C. came rushing in, having sprinted down from the top floor where they had been searching for their missing Higgy, Rick yelled again.

"Tell that ambulance to hurry the hell up!" rang through the house, and he sounded outright panicked.

…

The female EMT had slammed the doors, leaving her male colleague in the back, fussing over something that had them both looking worried, and ran to the front of the ambulance. She'd pulled away before the three men had piled into the Island Hoppers van, but that was okay. They'd asked as Higgins was being carried out where she would be taken.

"Saint Katherine's," the man had told them, not looking up from his far too pale, far too still patient.

Katsumoto had nodded at Magnum's questioning look; he had to stay at the scene, but the three of them were free to go. Not that he'd really thought he could stop them.

"We'll call you as soon as we know anything!" Rick had called through the open window as T.C. had hit the gas. 

They'd actually kept up with the ambulance for a few streets, but a red light had separated them. By the time the three men were hurrying in through the doors, Higgins had already been taken in through the double doors that barred entry to the general public. 

"The doctor is in with her now," the sympathetic looking man at the nurses' desk told them in answer to their inquiries. "Take a seat just over there. Someone will come out as soon as they can."

The seats were, in the great tradition of hospitals, too small and too hard to be comfortable. Each man privately wanted to stand and stretch but refused to so much as shift. They needed news first, to know their little sister was going to be okay. Then they would worry about themselves. 

The clock was on the wall in front of Magnum, and he was refusing to watch it. He stared at the floor, at his own hands, at Rick and T.C. as they tried to keep a conversation going to pass the time. His mind kept throwing up images from the last few weeks as if turning over the facts. He saw Higgins laughing helplessly as Zeus and Apollo appeared out of nowhere and pounced on her, ignoring their training to get at the treats she was carrying. He heard her voice in his head, telling him she wouldn't be long and asking him to please try to avoid giving the lads all the treats in his efforts to stop them from killing him. He saw his cell ringing with a private number and replayed the computerized message that had told him his partner had been kidnapped, that he would be contacted with ransom details. 

He felt his heart starting to speed up as he saw the days progressing, one after the other after the other, with no word from whoever had taken Higgins, no progress on their investigation. He saw his friends becoming quieter and grimmer but staying every inch as determined to find her as they were that very first day. 

They had been looking so hard, turning over every rock they could find, growing increasingly desperate as time had passed. Every one of them had done everything they could, called in every favor they had ever been owed, pleaded for just a scrap of information they could act on.

Magnum's stomach was starting to twist into a knot of remembered fear when a voice called, "Family of Juliet Higgins?"

The three of them leaped to their feet, introducing themselves as her brothers. The doctor didn't even blink, just gave them all a smile that seemed designed to reassure. He introduced himself as Doctor Roberts before moving straight on.

"I'm afraid Ms. Higgins has been very badly treated," he told them, glancing at the tablet he was carrying. "She's dehydrated, malnourished, and utterly exhausted to the point of mild sleep deprivation. On top of that, a nasty infection has taken hold in the ropeburns around her left wrist." Despite the words, his voice was smooth, the tone telling them all to stay calm and let him finish. 

"We're working on raising her fluid levels and treating the infection with a mixed IV. It may sound silly, but a few nights' sleep will reverse the sleep deprivation easily enough, and I've left instructions for the administration of a mild sedative if she needs it." He gave a small sigh and the smile shrank.

The three men all leaned forward just a little; clearly this was the bit that was most concerning.

"The malnutrition will be a little trickier to treat." Dr Roberts sounded apologetic, like he was trying to forestall a rush of anger. "We'll be pushing nutrients for now, and I'll be meeting with a nutritional specialist shortly to discuss a more effective plan."

There was silence for a second as everyone worked through what they had just been told. 'Basically,' they were all thinking, 'she's hungry, thirsty, tired, and needs some antiseptic. Been there, done that.' They all knew everyone else would think they were crazy if they were to actually voice those thoughts, but they weren't being dismissive of what Higgins had been through. On the contrary, they knew first-hand how hard her recovery was going to be.

After they had escaped from the Korengal, they had spent months in various hospitals getting various issues treated, including everything their Higgy was currently facing. They all knew it wasn't as simple as handing her a glass of water and a plate of food, but they also knew she was healthy enough and strong enough and in more than good enough hands that she would be just fine. 

And, once they got her out of the hospital and back to the estate, she'd be even better. There was no question in their minds, they would all be staying at Robin's Nest while she was recovering. She would need help, whether she would be willing to admit it or not, and there was no chance of any of them leaving her alone to try to struggle through on her own.

They just needed her to be discharged first.

…

“What on earth is this?” Magnum sounded confused, and Rick supposed it was a fair reaction.

“It’s a carton of eggs.” Rick tried his hardest to sound casual, like it was totally normal for him to be breaking into Magnum’s house and sneaking eggs into his fridge. Judging by the way Magnum’s eyes narrowed, Rick had to figure he’d done a bad job of it.

“Kumu came over with a dozen eggs just yesterday.”

“Yeah, well, you know.” Rich winced at his own lameness. “We’re uh… We’re trying to make sure everyone is looking after themselves while we’re still all going back and forth to the hospital.” That sounded better. Higgins had gotten worse over that first night, her body too exhausted to respond properly to the antibiotics she’d been given. That was four days ago and she was still on restricted visitors, the fever refusing to break.

“Right.” Magnum’s voice, dragging the word out, clearly said he wasn’t buying whatever Rick was trying to sell. “And that’s why T.C. showed up with a carton of eggs yesterday too?”

Rick wanted to tell him. He felt like an idiot for not just opening his mouth and explaining. But Higgins had sounded so desperate as she had begged him to make sure Magnum had eggs. She had nearly been in tears as she explained about the extra groceries she’d been buying and pleaded with him not to hate her for it. It had taken the entire half an hour he had been allowed to see her for Rick to convince her that no one would be angry with her for looking out for Magnum, but she had still made him swear he wouldn’t say a word about it. Although, by the sound of things, she had extracted similar promises from both Kumu and T.C.

He was saved from having to think of a reply by a knock at the door. It swung open to reveal Katsumoto holding a familiar looking box in his hands.

“Gordon?” Now Magnum just sounded lost.

“Higgins called me this morning; apparently she lifted a cell from a porter. She seemed to think you were going to die of starvation if I didn’t bring you eggs.” He ran a critical eye over the P.I., trying to shake the image his mind had conjured of Higgins in that dark little cell, pale and gaunt and frantic with worry over Thomas being hungry. “You don’t look like you’re on the verge of dropping from malnutrition.”

“I’m really not. What... what’s going on with her?”

“Maybe you should ask her?” Rick suggested, seizing the opportunity to get away without having to break his promise to Jules. “It is your turn to see her this morning.” He could see Katsumoto was looking confused and walked to the door, taking the eggs off the detective. “You can put these in the fridge, right?” And he dropped the eggs to the side, put his arm around Katsumoto, and steered him back out of the door. 

Five minutes later, the Ferrari was roaring along the road, nose pointing toward the hospital. Magnum spent the drive trying to practice what he was going to say to Higgins and wondering, if their positions were reversed, what reasons he would have for making people buy her a ridiculous amount of eggs.

Pulling into a parking space and still no closer to an idea of what to say, he grabbed the book he had brought to read to her and headed on in.

"Hey you," he called quietly, seeing her eyes open as he moved slowly into her room; they didn't know whether it was the fever or something that had happened while she was being held, but she didn't react well to sudden movements.

"Thomas?" She sounded so tired.

Magnum felt his heart squeeze a little in sympathy. He pushed the feeling away and forced a smile to his face, moving closer.

"Yeah, it's me." Her eyes lost their focus for a second, and he waited until she was looking at him before continuing. "I got the eggs you asked the guys to buy "

"Oh good," she breathed, her entire body seeming to relax a little. "I knew Shammy would remember."

Shammy? He hadn't had any eggs from Shammy yet and nearly groaned at the thought of yet another carton appearing in his fridge. Apparently the frustration showed on his face; Higgins' eyes got wide and worried.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," she said hurriedly, "but it seemed so hard to explain. And it was only a few dollars a week. And you just needed the help, but I knew you'd never accept." 

Magnum listened, mouth open slightly in shock, as she talked, almost rambling at times, about slipping groceries into the guest house. About how, alone in the dark with nothing but the fear that she would never be found, she had worried over his food. About how Rick had promised her that he wouldn't be angry.

"Hey, easy, girl." He cut her off mid-sentence, hearing something horribly close to real fear in her voice. "I'm not angry." And he meant it. He couldn't help but think back to his time in solitary, never knowing if his brothers were still alive, never knowing if he would ever see them again even if they were. He would lose himself in wild dreams of the three of them escaping without him, of them being beaten and tortured. It didn't take much effort to remember the mess he was everytime he was taken back to their cell, the way he would obsess over every new cut and bruise they were bearing, as if him being there could have prevented it.

Higgins was still looking wary, her eyes awfully bright with unshed tears, and Magnum felt like a jerk for having even considered being annoyed by the egg debacle. He put his hand over her's, thumb rubbing lightly over the soft skin.

"I kinda like knowing you're always looking out for me no matter what," he told her, the smile on his face gentle and warm. 

She smiled back at him, the fear leaving her eyes as even her fever-addled brain could see the sincerity written all over his face. "Thomas? Will you make me an omelette?" She sounded half-asleep, her eyes slipping closed even as she waited for an answer.

"Of course I will, Juliet," Magnum promised, already planning to swing by the store on his way back to the estate and pick up a few herbs and some more butter. After everything she had been through and how worried she had been about him during her ordeal, an omelette was the least he could do. "Anything for you, partner."

She didn't hear him. For the first time since the infection had set in, she was sleeping soundly.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah. Higgy would totally buy groceries for Tommy and then hide that fact for months. That's just her. Just a shame one omelette won't make much of an impact on the amount of eggs people bought at her request lol!


End file.
